The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee unanimously passed a bill opposed by the United Motorcoach Association and the American Bus Association that the groups say fails to use science to improve motorcoach safety.

Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) introduced the Motorcoach Enhanced Safety Act of 2009 in March on the one-year anniversary of a crash in Atlanta that killed five Bluffton University baseball players after the motorcoach in which they were riding plunged off a freeway overpass. The driver mistook a highway exit for a through-way bus lane.

But representatives of UMA and ABA have previously said the motorcoach and commercial bus industries prefer a proposed bill by Rep. Bill Schuster (R-PA) (HR 1135) that would require the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to perform a study to determine what motorcoach safety requirements should be improved within the next three years. In a separate but related federal motorcoach safety plan unveiled last month by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, NHTSA is directed to prescribe standards for occupant protection that accounts for frontal, side and rear collisions, as well as rollovers, and provide standards for the same items the Brown-Hutchinson bill requires. The bill specifies consideration of retrofitting of this equipment, but does not require it.

Specifically, the Brown-Hutchinson bill seeks to ensure occupants are not ejected in a crash through the use of three-point lap/shoulder belts and window glazing; electronic stability control technology; improved crush-resistant roofs that can withstand rollovers; electronic on-board recorders to ensure compliance with federal hours-of-service regulations; and a comprehensive evaluation of improved fire protection by reducing flammability of the motorcoach interior. The latter provision would extend operator training on fire safety and would require NHTSA to review fire safety technologies, followed by new performance standards based on the results of NHTSA’s evaluation.

The Motorcoach Enhanced Safety Act would also require all new motorcoach operators to undergo an on-site pre-authorization safety audit before they could begin operations and would subject the companies to safety audits within nine months. All states would also be assessed on the need for implementing motorcoach vehicle inspection programs.

The bill also would attempt to stop so-called reincarnated motorcoaches by requiring any individual who attempts to register commercial motorcoaches to disclose all previous business relationships to other motorcoach companies, which might be on the federal out-of-service list for past violations. Drivers would also be required to obtain improved training, and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration would need to issue a rule prohibiting the use of cell phones, text messaging devices and any other mobile electronic equipment that could cause driver distraction.

Representatives from Brown's and Hutchinson's offices said half of all motorcoach fatalities over the past 10 years have occurred as a result of rollovers, and 70 percent of the individuals killed were ejected from the bus.